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Post by Bowie on Mar 21, 2013 17:39:04 GMT -5
"Of course, of course. Let's see," Beduni answered, pushing his glasses closer to the bridge of his snout. The zebra then began sorting out the bits, arranging them in neat rows until he had separated the cost of Nightsong's stay from what was left over. He then scooped his share of the bits into a till, leaving the rest for Nightsong to take back. "There we are, and here's your room key," the zebra said, pulling out a key and dropping it on the counter. "Your room will be number 205. Second floor, third on the left. I'll be down here if you need anything. Don't hesitate to ask."
The brown-coated zebra watched as Nightsong took his change and key, his eyes suddenly lighting up with realization. "Shoot, I forgot to get your name!" In a flash, Beduni had brought forth a worn and heavy book, a quill, and some ink, setting the three items on the counter with a thud. "Cordial would've never let me hear the end of it if I'd forgotten. Guess I'm off the ball today." The zebra flipped through pages of names, dates, and room numbers before finally reaching a half-blank page. "Alright, just need your name and where you're from, and for you to sign that line underneath the others. After that, the room is all yours for the night."
Most of the names on the page appeared to belong to ponies, with a small amount more zebra-sounding. A few of the zebras had simply written an 'X' where their signature should have gone, a clear indication of not knowing how to write their own name.
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Post by Nightsong on Mar 24, 2013 16:59:39 GMT -5
"Alright, just need your name and where you're from, and for you to sign that line underneath the others. After that, the room is all yours for the night."
Looking at the array of writing tools in front of him, he couldn’t help but notice some of the names in the book Beduni handed to him. “Whoa, zebra have such cool names, except the ones named X. They must be secret agents.” Nightsong grabs the quill and dips the tip in ink. “I’m Nightsong, and I came all they way here from Equestria.” Gradually looking down the page, he finds an empty space to write his name, and wrote “Nightsong” followed by what resembled a yin yang sign next. “Hey, I’m all finished. Thanks for the room!” Without further thought, he ran up a flight of stairs a few feet away from him. However, he came back down a few seconds later, walking slowly back to the counter. “Um, do you mind helping my find room?”
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Post by Bowie on Mar 25, 2013 0:28:12 GMT -5
"Certainly," Beduni answered, setting the book to the side and walking around the counter. "A lot of our visitors are from Equestria, mostly because they've set up more permanent housing for the zebras who've come from the tribes to study. Not to mention we're one of the nicer inns here."
The zebra began leading Nightsong back up the flight of stairs, looking back as the stairs wound around several corners. "We don't have any secret agents that visit the inn, I'm afraid. At least not ones that I know of. Those zebras that wrote down X's for their signatures don't quite know how to write, at least not yet. That's why most of the zebras come to Neighroby: to learn to read, write, and other things. Same reason my dad came here."
Beduni took Nightsong a short distance down the hall, stopping outside a door labeled '205'. "Here we are, Nightsong. Inside should be a bed, a small washroom, everything you'll need. Hopefully it won't feel too different from home." The zebra took a few steps past Nightsong before stopping again. "I'll be on shift until morning, so again, if you need anything, don't hesitate to ask. Though I imagine you're pretty tired since you were dozing off in the lobby. Hope you sleep well."
With that, the zebra returned to the stairs at the end of the hallway, leaving Nightsong alone with nothing between him and a good night's sleep.
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Post by Nightsong on Mar 28, 2013 4:11:37 GMT -5
Nightsong didn't seem to care much for the rooms’ debonair appearance, but he did feel relaxed and secure. Looking around the room, he noticed a window right near his new bed. Placing his hooves on the window sill, he looked out the window, only to be greeted by an amazing view of Neighroby, but because of the time, the town’s inhabitants were non- existent. Upon looking out the window, he looked over at the university he was suspended from, thinking about the zebra’s in that class, especially Idili. “Hmm…my luck with schools was never that great anyway. Maybe things might look up for me tomorrow, there must be some techniques I can carry back with me.”
Taking his hooves off the sill, Nightsong leaps into his bed, bouncing up and down a few times due to the flexible bed springs. With his fore hooves behind his head, his head looked over to his right as he noticed the candles illuminating the room. Sitting up on his rump, he rears his hooves back and then pushes them forward fiercely. All but one of the candles blew out, giving the room much more dim lighting. Nightsong wasn't afraid of the dark, but he just felt safer having a little bit of light somewhere whenever he slept. Lying back down on his bed, he rested upon his pillow and fell asleep a few minutes later. Hours went be during Nigthsong’ slumber, until he had another dream. The dream he was having seemed to be from the view of someone else, as he was looking at a younger version of himself, lying down in a basket. Nightsong woke up, wiping his eyes as look around the dark empty room. He looked over at the window, seeing that it was still in the middle of the night. Looking at the moon's positioning, he assumed it was 3 A.M. Nightsong decides to rest his head back onto his pillow, slowly closing his eyes afterwards.
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Post by Bowie on Mar 31, 2013 20:36:58 GMT -5
The rest of Nightsong's night went uninterrupted. In the morning, he'd find that the inn's lobby was mostly empty. There wasn't a fancy breakfast or a buffet laid out for the guests. The closest thing was a basket or two of breakfast pastries and rolls. Most of the ponies and zebras in the hotel probably went somewhere else for breakfast.
Beduni was now gone, his shift having ended before Nightsong awoke. In his place was a green-pelted female pegasus, looking through the book Nightsong had written his name in the previous evening. The only others staying in the lobby were a young zebra couple, enjoying their humble breakfast. They both had the traditional black and white stripes, the male's mane and tail cut short while the female's was longer but tied up and out of the way.
The male zebra grinned as Nightsong descended from the staircase. "Is that a pony that comes this way? And how are you on this fine day?" The female zebra promptly smacked him in the back of the head. "Ow!"
"Cut that out."
"What?"
"You're not a shaman. Stop with the rhyming thing in front of tourists."
"Alright, alright. Sheesh."
"Sorry about him. He can be a dork sometimes," the female zebra said. "I'm Chikere and this is Emeka."
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Post by Nightsong on Apr 5, 2013 15:44:57 GMT -5
Clearing his eyes as he walked down stairs, he heard the voice of a male greeting him. However, the voice’s up beat nature was cut short by a smacking sound. “You're not a shaman. Stop with the rhyming thing in front of tourists.” Coming down stairs, Nightsong walked in front of two zebras sitting on a couch arguing about something. Nightsong couldn't really tell what the relationship between the two was, but whatever they were arguing about it looked like the mare was winning. "Sorry about him. He can be a dork sometimes, I'm Chikere and this is Emeka."
Feeling a little bad for the zebra stallion, Nightsong walked over to them and said “I’m Nightsong and don’t worry about it, I enjoy the rhyming now.” Looking closely at the zebras, Nightsong swiftly moved behind the couch, appearing behind the two zebras. Propping his hooves on the rear of the couch, he politely asked “Hey, you two wouldn’t happen to be secret agents would you?”
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Post by Bowie on Apr 5, 2013 21:23:25 GMT -5
"See? They get a kick out of the rhyming," Emeka said, grinning at Chikere. The other zebra responded by rolling her eyes. "Secret agents? I guess we're on a special mission. That kind of makes us secret agents, doesn't it?"
"No. We're just here on tribal businesses," Chikere answered, taking a bite out of her pastry.
"Sounds boring when you say it like that," Emeka said, frowning a little. "Anyways, what brings you to the continent, Nightsong? The culture? The wildlife? The sense of adventure?" Chikere rolled her eyes again.
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Post by Nightsong on Apr 6, 2013 2:23:42 GMT -5
“Honestly,the reason I'm came out here is for training purposes. I’m a martial artist from Equestria and my master suggested I'd come out here. It was mostly because of this zebra I met in the town of Hoofington. She was very small, but her mind sure wasn't. Though bound to the Earth like me, she could fly with these weird wings she built. I figured if zebras could defy gravity, they could probably do so much else. When I went back to my home, my master told me about the zebras and their spiritual links to the earth.”
Nightsong did a front flip over the zebra’s heads, landing back in front of them. He grabbed a pastry from the basket on the table and sat down with a roll in his hooves. “I came here to learn about “zebra magic”, but luck just hasn't been on my side. So maybe there is some other techniques I can learn out here.” Nightsong tosses the roll into his mouth, gobbling it down after chewing on it for a few seconds. “Today is a new day though, so I’ll do some more training and then do some more exploration.”
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Post by Bowie on Apr 8, 2013 18:42:39 GMT -5
"Martial artist, huh?" Emeka asked, watching as Nightsong flipped in front of the two zebras. The male zebra rubbed his chin as Nightsong continued speaking, Chikere eating her breakfast in the meantime, showing much less interest in what the pony had to say. "Listen, Chikere and I are going to start the trip back to our tribe tomorrow morning. You're welcome to join us if you'd like."
Chikere stopped in the middle of a bite, pulling back to give the other zebra a confused look. Emeka seemed to disregard it, continuing to speak to Nightsong. "I'm sure you could learn more from our tribe than you will in Neighroby. Most of the stuff they teach here is for the zebras, basic stuff you already know. I mean, if you want the authentic Zebra experience, Neighroby isn't where you're going to find it."
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Post by Nightsong on Apr 13, 2013 2:06:03 GMT -5
"Listen, Chikere and I are going to start the trip back to our tribe tomorrow morning. You're welcome to join us if you'd like." Hearing this, Nightsong hopped backed onto his hooves and looked Emeka face to face as he says “Really?” Though he has only known these two for a very short time, Emeka seemed like a nice guy, while Chikere didn’t seem all that social. Despite this, Nightsong threw caution to the wind, and decided to take Emeka up on his offer. “Well, I hate to have come all this way for nothing… Okay then, Deal!”
Before anything else was said, Nightsong ran up to his room to collect his things before the trip. Upon entering the room, the only thing he notices is his satchel on a very messy bed. Grabbing his satchel, he remembers a saying his master always told him. “The best guest is a clean guest.” Nightsong slings the satchel around his body and begins to smooth out the sheets on the bed, leaving behind five bits in the center. After making his bed, he then grabs what appears to be a mint scented, light green gel from a front pocket from his satchel. He squeezes the gel into his mouth, but instead of swallowing it, he swishes it around instead and spits it out into a nearby garbage can. After straightening up, he leaves his room and makes his way back down stairs to the lobby. “So, where are we going guys?” Nightsong says, as he sees the zebra duo still on the couch. “And what does authentic mean?”
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Post by Bowie on Apr 13, 2013 11:02:04 GMT -5
The two zebras merely watched in a sort of stunned silence as Nightsong ran back upstairs. By the time he came back they were nearly done with their breakfasts. "Authentic?" Emeka asked. "What I meant was, Neighroby's not really an accurate depiction of the Zebra Continent. This is a pony settlement after all. You're going to get a much better taste of the Zebra experience by spending time in one of the tribes."
The male zebra peered over at Nightsong's satchel before continuing. "We're not leaving until tomorrow, so-"
"In the meantime," Chikere spoke, cutting of Emeka as she stood up, "Emeka and I have private businesses we have to deal with."
"Private?" Emeka asked.
"As in he can't tag along. Meet us in this exact spot tomorrow morning," she said, turning back to Nightsong. "We leave at 6:30 with or without you." With that she turned to leave the little lobby, making her way to the door.
"Yeah, uh, I'm sure you can find something to do in the meantime," Emeka said, quickly following behind Chikere with his head still turned back towards Nightsong. "Neighroby might not be authentic, but it's still worth saying you visited. There's stuff to do here." The zebras then exited the inn, off to take care of whatever private business they had.
As the two had said, Nightsong still had almost a full day before the three would leave tomorrow morning. There was surely plenty to do and people to see. And at the end of the day, he could come back to the Landstrider's Rest, catch some sleep, and meet Emeka and Chikere in the lobby the next morning.
The building was now quiet, the settlement outside practically begging for Nightsong to explore it. The green-pelted pegasus mare was still at the receptionist desk. He could always ask her for suggestions if he needed to.
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Post by Nightsong on Apr 19, 2013 22:53:33 GMT -5
Nightsong watched Chikere and Emeka trot off, leaving him at the Inn. “They are definitely secret agents” Nightsong says, as he makes a “get a load of this” gesture with his hoof. Seeing as he was staying at the Inn for another night, Nightsong made another trip back to his room and placed his satchel back on to his bed. AS he came back down stairs, Nightsong pulled out the map he received in Hoofington, along with a feather. He slowly sketched his location at the land striders rest, so wherever he goes next, the map would help in case he ever loses his way. After a few minutes, he finishes his sketch and folds his map back into a small square.
Placing his map down on the table, he suddenly slumps down in the couch with a depressed look in his eyes. “A whole day, huh? Man, I would just go to sleep, but I just woke up. I’d like to get some training done, but I don’t have any opponents.” Nightsong slowly rolls forward like a black blob, from off the couch and onto his back. With his eyes staring at the ceiling, Nightsong ponders his next move. “What on Earth am I supposed to do now?” Looking back down, he notices the receptionist desk and wondered if Beduni was sleeping behind their again. Getting up, he slowly walked up to the desk, but he couldn’t really see who was there. “Hey Beduni, you wanna…oh, sorry I thought you were someone else.” A green Pegasus mare appeared in Nightsong’s vision, staring at him. “Cool, a pegasus pony. You fly around a lot don’t ya? That must mean you get a clear view as to what goes on around here.”
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Post by Bowie on Apr 21, 2013 12:51:32 GMT -5
"Beduni? His shift ending a few hours ago. I'm Cordial, owner of the Landstrider's", the pegasus spoke, smiling warmly at Nightsong. "I don't do a whole lot of flying, but I grew up here and certainly know my way about. Were you looking for places of interest? Something you might want to visit during your stay?"
Without even waiting for Nightsong's response, the mare had pulled out a simple map of the city, beginning to circle various locations with a quill and ink. "Here's the university bell tower, oldest building in Neighroby and gives a great view of the city. Soko Market is over here, great place to get a souvenir. What else, what else? Ah, here's the the museum. Has a great collection of exhibits on the wildlife native to the continent, as well as tribal history, art, etcetera. Administration Building, might be a bit boring for you unless you're a history buff. University Library, hmm... that looks like enough to get you started."
Cordial then slid the map closer to Nightsong, putting her quill back in its bottle. "Just make sure you stay out of the south-east district. That's not exactly the cleanest side of the city."
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Post by Nightsong on Apr 23, 2013 3:17:14 GMT -5
Nightsong watched as Cordial lay out the map, and make a verbal list of Neirohby’s many establishments. Half through however, Nightsong started paying half attention as the places Cordial pointed was just your typical attractions that you’d find in a lot of other towns or cities. “Hmmm…well, I guess I can get a souvenir for master at the shop. “ As Cordial slipped the map in front of Nightsong, his head slowly slumped down in his hooves, with is eyes half opened. “Has a day passed yet?” "Just make sure you stay out of the south-east district. That's not exactly the cleanest side of the city." Nightsong was a little interested as to what the green Pegasus meant by that, but not enough to bring out any noticeable reaction. “Not the cleanest? Is it reeeally, really dirty over there?”
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Post by Bowie on Apr 24, 2013 11:57:16 GMT -5
"Well... I suppose it's dirtier, but what I meant was that it's not as, erm, 'regulated' as the rest of the city." Cordial let out an awkward frown, obviously having trouble trying to communicate what she meant. "It's the more... scummy, slummy part of the city, where the bottom rung tends to congregate. Not to mention that they run races down there, which Erastus has forbidden, mind you."
"Just do yourself a favor and avoid the district altogether. I know some of the places I mentioned might not sound very exciting, but they're all worth experiencing! Neighroby may be closer to Equestria than you were hoping, but even in Equestrian cities there are unique things to do."
"I'm sorry if it sounds like I'm overselling it, but I'd hate for you to start your day thinking you won't do something exciting."
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